Yes, I don't think there's anyone who doesn't LOVE Yuna's 3/3. It's just that this Olympics has become somewhat of a snoozefest ever since it became evident that skaters who aren't Yuna have zero chance of winning the OGM no matter how well they skate. In every past Olympics, things have been unpredictable. Can you imagine in 1998 a clean Kwan being beaten by a 15 year old upstart with the skate of her life? Or in 2002 Kwan and Slutskaya being beaten by another upstart having the skate of her life? In 2006, Cohen, Arakawa, and Slutskaya were neck and neck after the SP. But here, Yuna and Mao both skated great, and there's a 5 point spread? And Mirai and others down by over 15 points? They could do five quad jumps in the LP while composing a symphony and doing their taxes and still not have a chance. It's like, can't we at least pretend that other skaters have a chance?

At the end of the day, I truly believe that had Mao been with a coaching group that could feed her positive energy, positive and complex choreography and enhance her technical ability, she would be on-par, if not better than Kim. Especially better if Kim had what Mao has now, a "consultant" (when times are bad) or a "coach" (when times are good)* who didn't give her the needed choreography or music to accentuate her remarkable skating qualities.

* I say this because earlier this season, Tarasova was quoted as saying that she was merely a "consultant", and this was when Mao was having a bad time. No doubt if Mao wins gold, Tarasova will be lapping up the attention once more for bringing up an OGM.

However, I agree with karenll. It feels as though Yu Na is the foreordained queen, nothing Mao does can alter that, and there will be a scandal if anyone else wins unless Yu Na makes a huge error and Mao is absolutely flawless and incandescent. There's just been sooooo much hype about Yu Na and so little willingness on the judges' part to acknowledge that any aspect of her skating is less than ideal.

I'm trying not to hold this against Yu Na. It's not her fault! And she is an amazing skater. I just don't like the constant theme, "she's in a class by herself." She's not that fabulous, or maybe it's more accurate to say sometimes she's that fabulous, but sometimes and in some ways she's not.

* I say this because earlier this season, Tarasova was quoted as saying that she was merely a "consultant", and this was when Mao was having a bad time. No doubt if Mao wins gold, Tarasova will be lapping up the attention once more for bringing up an OGM.

And now after the short program Tarasova is acting like Mao is her biggest treasure all of a sudden lol

At the end of the day, I truly believe that had Mao been with a coaching group that could feed her positive energy, positive and complex choreography and enhance her technical ability, she would be on-par, if not better than Kim. Especially better if Kim had what Mao has now, a "consultant" (when times are bad) or a "coach" (when times are good)* who didn't give her the needed choreography or music to accentuate her remarkable skating qualities.

* I say this because earlier this season, Tarasova was quoted as saying that she was merely a "consultant", and this was when Mao was having a bad time. No doubt if Mao wins gold, Tarasova will be lapping up the attention once more for bringing up an OGM.

Well to be frank, I don't see Tarasova as a proper coach; Mao doesn't train in Russia and Tarasova won't stay in Japan, which effectively reduces the time they spend together to a mere fraction of the time other skaters & coaches spend together. Moreover, she hasn't been able to dissuade Mao from putting too much emphasis on the 3As - as a renowned choreographer and coach, she should know the CoP as well as anyone else by now, yet still she lets Mao make these choices. I'm not saying that Mao should do away with the 3As altogether but looking back on this season and last season, those 3As have cost her so much. If she lands both tomorrow, perhaps we could say it was worth it, but I think we can all agree that this coaching team is not the resounding success of Yuna-Orser-Wilson.

This might be a little off-topic: Please correct me if I'm wrong, but is Tarasova known as a "jump" coach? I thought that she is better known as a choreographer. When Yagudin went to her, didn't he already have his jumps?

This might be a little off-topic: Please correct me if I'm wrong, but is Tarasova known as a "jump" coach? I thought that she is better known as a choreographer. When Yagudin went to her, didn't he already have his jumps?

Tarasova wanted Mao to get technical coach for her jumps but apparantly Mao and her mom (most likely her mom) thought they didn't need one.